'Theocentric Partnership': Tracing Ecospirituality in Rudolpho Anaya's Bless Me Ultima

Maria Sebastian MPhil Student Stella Maris College, Chennai [email protected] Abstract

The paper studies Rudolpho Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima, a Chicano novel. The aim of the paper is

to trace the conflict between the New Mexican indigenous traditional beliefs and the Catholic

faith. The study also highlights that the Church should shift its focus from the idea of

anthropocentric stewardship to theocentric environmentalism.

Keywords: animism, anthropocentrism, theocentrism, spirituality, nature, church

Bless Me Ultima, by Ruolpho Anaya,a Chicano novel,is the story of young Antonio

Marez who grows up under the influence of Mexican and Native American traditions. Ultima is a

healer in the tradition of the native New Mexican healers whose role is to “open Antonio’s eyes

so he can see the beauty of the landscape and the spiritual roots of his culture” (4).In the novel,

one can trace the conflict between the New Mexican indigenous traditional beliefs and the

Catholic faith. “There are many religions in the world, many spiritual paths. These paths are part

of our inheritance as NuevosMexicanos, …but the Catholic Church in Mexico had tried to wipe

out the indigenous religions” (Kenyon 3). Ultima, the healer stands for the Ancient indigenous

traditions and the curative power of nature.The Golden Carp and Moby Dick: Rudolpho Anaya’s

Multiculturalismpoints out that, through the character of Ultima, Anaya, seeks to promote the

worship of nature – “wild, free and seemingly benevolent as an alternative to Catholicism which

many characters in the novel finds stifling” (Kanoza 163). Anaya criticizes the anthropocentric

environmentalism promoted by the modern Church in the novel.

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John Passmore in Man’s Responsibility For Nature opines that, Christian attitudes lead us

to think of ourselves as “superior to nature” and to be “contemptuous of it, willing to use it for

our slightest whims” (3). According to Passmore, the Christian view that nature was made for

man, lies the seed of an attitude to nature that can be described as “arrogant” than the purely Old

Testament conception of man’s dominion (12). According to the Bible, God, the creator, tells

man “to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle

and over the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon earth” (Gen 1:26).

In the novel, Anaya exposes the dogmatic Catholicism in the cold and ineffectual priest whose

sole method of teaching his first communicants is a meaningless Catechism. The children

respond to him by rote but have no deeper understanding of the faith to which they are being

indoctrinated. Father Brynes does not encourage any fuller awareness.The priest remains blind to

the hardships faced by young Florence. He chides him and refuses him the holy sacrament. The

sermons and teachings of the priest fail to inspire him. This context signifies that the dogmatic

and ritualistic church has been reduced into an empty shell. Though scornful of the limitations

and cruel paradoxes of the church, Florence searches for “a god of beauty, a god of here and

now… god who does not punish”(148). He is drawn to the lake, but, unable to resist the

beckoning water, he drowns. His death is described as an “underwater exploration that lasts too

long” (241).This incident signifies the indifference shown by the church towards humans and the

natural world.

Most of the characters in the novel are disillusioned with the formalised, ritualistic

Church. Their desire to find a majestic, benevolent alternative leads them to nature. Some

characters like Florence are willing to take their own lives in order to reconcile with nature.

Hence, “the pantheistic-like spirituality is an equally strong contender for the religious

affectations of the soul searchers in Bless Me, Ultima”(Kanoza 162). A Mexican’s life is closely

interwoven with the indigenous culture. It is shaped by the beautiful and cruel landscape. In a

Mexican’s life the nature’s spirit is as important as the ordinary reality.

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Ultima “seems never to sleep” (180) as she works incessantly to save the mankind from

the workings of the evil. Hence, Ultima is a stark contrast to ritualistic dogmatic church.Ultima’s

influence, which is natural and unimposed, inspires Antonio as her way of life blends with the

feelings of concreteness and closeness to the forces of nature. Ultima projects the collective

Mexican American experience. Ultima is a curandera, a natural healer. The curandera, in the

novel is a metaphor for something the Church has lost. Ultima teaches Antonio the beauty of

Ilano and all nature. She demonstrates its power to cure physical and moralsicknesss. “For

Ultima, even the plants had a spirit, before she dug she made me [Antonio] speak to the plant and

tell it why we pulled it from its home in the earth” (39). Ultima deeply respects all natural

beings.

In her cures, Ultima succeeds where the Catholic priest has failed. She is the mediator

between the oppositions within their culture. The power in nature’s supplements goes beyond the

power of the church but, it is a power the church is supposed to have possessed once.However,

the church has lost its special power to its dogmatism and ritualism. Antonio’s mothersays that

the priests of her time could exorcise unnatural forces. Church has since time lost touch both

with nature and people. “I had been thinking how Ultima’s medicine had cured my uncle… I had

been thinking how the priest had failed. In my mind I could not understand how the power of

God could fail. But, it did” (106).However, it is not god who has failed. The reason for the

church’s failure is its lack of respect for nature and the staunch adherence to the concept of

anthropocentric stewardship. For instance, Father Byrnes is divorced from the spiritual needs of

his parishioners. Ultima, who performs marvellous, cures beyond the ability of the Church,

shows Antonio the power inherent in plants and stones. Ultimateaches him to “listen to the

mystery of the groaning earth”. Through her he learns that his “spirit is shared in the spirit of all

things” (15).

Anthropologist E.B. Taylor coined the term ‘animism’ which refers “to a type of

religion”. It can be defined as a “belief in spiritual beings” (1232). Animism can be summed up

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by the phrases “all that exists lives” and “all that lives is holy” (Taylor 1232). Ultima’s earth-

centeredanimism is visible in the novel. The owl in the novel is the bird that represents Ulltima’s

spirit. Owl is both a tutelary spirit and a messenger in the novel. Similarly the legend of the

golden carp plays an important role in the novel. The golden crap shakes Antonio’s faith in

Christ as the carp, which is willing to sacrifice himself to save the erring mankind, is a stark

contrast to the unmerciful church. When Antonia first sees the carp he receives sudden

illumination of the mystery and beauty present in nature. As the character Cico points out,

Golden carp’s advice to humanity is that “everyone should survive but in new form” (176) which

is ultimately the crux ofAnaya’s novel.The carp is a reflection of the world of myth.

As Ultima’s apprentice, Antonio learns that Christianity and native mythology are

compatible. Ultima participates in the Catholic rituals but her faith is never dictated by dogma.

She reveres the untamed plains and praises the land, “and there is faith here… a faith in the

reason of nature being, evolving, growing” (220). According to Kenyon, The merger of the

pagan and Christian belief is complete in her answer for Antonio’s pleas, which is the title of the

novel (13). As she offers blessings, she adopts cadenceof the catholic benediction and invokes

her own secular benevolent triune: “I bless you in the name of all that is good and strong and

beautiful”(261).

The compatibility of the Church and the native Mexican traditions is depicted in the

novel by drawing parallels between Ultima and Christ, Ultima represents Christ’s incarnation as

a healer. Ultima cures Uncle Lucas who thanks her for his life. As Christ sheds blood to give

man the opportunity to return to heaven, Ultima sacrifices her life “to heal the sick and to show

them the path of goodness” (260). A parallel can be drawn between Ultima’s sacrifice and Christ

who sacrificed himself “to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Lk

1:79). One can also draw a parallel between the owl, which is Ultima’s spirit and the ‘holyspirit’.

As Antonio points out, “As men brought evil to our hills, the owl had hovered over us, protecting

us”(158). Similarly, the Bible refers to the holy spirit as a healer and a protector; “you will

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receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you” (Acts 1:8) This shows that Christianity and

the natural healer are not in conflict with each other. Ultima, for Antonio is the beginning of

everything, which echoes the first verse of the opening chapter of the gospel of St. John, “in the

beginning was the word” (John 1:1). Ultima is a Christ like manifestation.The curanderismois

something the church had lost. Anaya through the novel strives to show how the church has gone

powerless and irrelevant. However the power it once possessed is attainable.

Hence, through the novel Anaya advocates theocentric environmentalism rather than an

ecocentric or anthropocentric environmentalism. Theocentric environmentalism identifies man

with nature as descendants of God. God’s hand in creation is the all important qualifier to our

understanding of the world. Eventhough,Ultima proves to be more powerful than the church she

is a devout catholic who tells Antonio that god is powerful.Ultima asks Antonio to replace the

bundle of herbs given by her for protection against evilwith the holy scapular he receives on his

communion day. An appreciation of the interconnectedness of all life involvesan on-going

dialogue with nature as part of god’s creation and plan. Hence theocentric environmentalism is a

shift from “man and nature” or man in nature to man and nature in God. (Hoffman 23)

The modern church views man’s dominion over the natural beings through the lens of

anthropocentric stewardship. Man is merely a caretaker and cannot exercise dominion over all

natural beings. Anaya wants the church to come out from its dogmatism and regain its power in

natural supplements. In theCatholic Church, nature is a source of power and meaning that cannot

be ignored. Ultima teaches Antonio that the “growth is change. Accept the change, make it part

of your strength” (245). Church must adapt to the change not divorce itself from it. The novel is

an affirmation of the need for growth and change within the church. The modern Catholic

Church advocates the need for a theocentric partnership between man and nature. This is evident

in the words of the spiritual heads of the church. As, Pope John Paul II points out in his World

Day of Peace Address, Church should shift from dominance to seeking harmony, a shift from

seeing man and nature as victim or at mercy of each other to seeing man and nature in the

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mutuality of God’s love (Vatican.va). Similarly, in his second encyclical, “Laudato Si: On Care

for Our Common Home”, Pope Francis the current head of the Catholic Church, points out the

need to accept the world as a “sacrament of communion”.“It is our humble conviction that the

divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in

the last speck of dust of our planet” (Vatican.va). It is through the greatness and the beauty of

creatures that one comes to know their maker. All of mankind should corporate as instruments of

God for the care of creation. Hence, man should participate in God’s creation by taking nature

into his own hands and by seeking ‘symbiosis’ or creative and sustainable partnership.

WORKS CITED

Anaya, Rudolpho. Bless Me, Ultima. libgen.io/.

Hoffman, Andrew, and Lloyd Sandelands. “Getting Light with Nature: Anthropocentrism,

Ecocentrism and Theocentrism.” deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/39158.

Kanoza, Theresa. “The Golden Carp and Moby Dick: Rudolfo Anaya's Multi-Culturalism.”

www.jstor.org/stable/467705.

Kenyon, Karen. “Visit with Rudolpho Anaya”. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27921891.

King James Bible. www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/.

Passmore, John. Man’s Responsibility for Nature. https://www.inflibnet.ac.in/

Pope Francis, “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home”. Vatican.va

Pope John Paul II. “Respect For Human Right: The Secret of True Peace.” The World Day of

Peace, 1999, Vatican, vatican.va.

Taylor, Bron, editor. Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. libgen.io/.

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